Page:The empire and the century.djvu/833

 by the Bahr-el-Ghazal, or Gazelle River, from the west From this point it is called the White Nile. The character of the river scenery now changes, and, by contrast with that recently passed through, improves. The stream is broad, open, and fairly straight, and although bordered on either side by wide areas of swamp, the dry land is visible beyond, sometimes marked by a belt of forest, but more often extending to the horizon in a high, grassy plain, upon which many native villages are located. There is now plenty of life upon the banks, as the Shilluks, who occupy the western shore, own large herds of cattle which they bring down to pasture in the marshes. They themselves are to be seen in numbers fishing and hunting the hippopotamus or the crocodile. The country to the east of the White Nile was formerly the home of the powerful Dinka tribe, but these last, during the dervish occupation, migrated inland, and are now only beginning to return to the river-bank.

Some fifty miles down-stream of Lake No the Bahr-el-Zaraf rejoins the White Nile, and at 1,060 miles from Lake Victoria its largest and most important tributary, the Sobat, enters it on the eastern bank. This stream largely influences the discharge of the main river, and from May to the end of November brings a larger volume of water into the Nile than ever succeeds in passing through the southern marshes from the equatorial lakes. The colour of the Sobat water, when rising, is a creamy white, changing, when in full flood, to a brick-red. Its stream tinges that of the White Nile for many a mile below the junction.

The next 800 miles of river merit but a brief description; indeed, any attempt at a detailed account of the dreary scenery here met with would be monotonous to an extreme degree, and would involve endless repetition. A few isolated granite hills stand out from the surrounding plains, and occasionally rocks crop up in the riverbed. The section of the stream is wide and shallow, and the current is feeble. The marshes continue on